diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst
index 9115c7fb23e8..380edc11eb81 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst
@@ -1694,9 +1694,10 @@ PAGE_SIZE multiple when read back.
 	entries fault back in or are written out to disk.
 
   memory.zswap.writeback
-	A read-write single value file. The default value is "1". The
-	initial value of the root cgroup is 1, and when a new cgroup is
-	created, it inherits the current value of its parent.
+	A read-write single value file. The default value is "1".
+	Note that this setting is hierarchical, i.e. the writeback would be
+	implicitly disabled for child cgroups if the upper hierarchy
+	does so.
 
 	When this is set to 0, all swapping attempts to swapping devices
 	are disabled. This included both zswap writebacks, and swapping due
diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
index e936cac09bee..92b4b6dd2517 100644
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c
+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -5591,8 +5591,7 @@ mem_cgroup_css_alloc(struct cgroup_subsys_state *parent_css)
 	WRITE_ONCE(memcg->soft_limit, PAGE_COUNTER_MAX);
 #if defined(CONFIG_MEMCG_KMEM) && defined(CONFIG_ZSWAP)
 	memcg->zswap_max = PAGE_COUNTER_MAX;
-	WRITE_ONCE(memcg->zswap_writeback,
-		!parent || READ_ONCE(parent->zswap_writeback));
+	WRITE_ONCE(memcg->zswap_writeback, true);
 #endif
 	page_counter_set_high(&memcg->swap, PAGE_COUNTER_MAX);
 	if (parent) {
@@ -8229,7 +8228,14 @@ void obj_cgroup_uncharge_zswap(struct obj_cgroup *objcg, size_t size)
 bool mem_cgroup_zswap_writeback_enabled(struct mem_cgroup *memcg)
 {
 	/* if zswap is disabled, do not block pages going to the swapping device */
-	return !zswap_is_enabled() || !memcg || READ_ONCE(memcg->zswap_writeback);
+	if (!zswap_is_enabled())
+		return true;
+
+	for (; memcg; memcg = parent_mem_cgroup(memcg))
+		if (!READ_ONCE(memcg->zswap_writeback))
+			return false;
+
+	return true;
 }
 
 static u64 zswap_current_read(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css,